Monthly Archives: January 2014

In Wisconsin, where heroin killed nearly 200 people in 2012, legislators are considering legislation that would provide immunity to anyone who helps a person who has overdosed on drugs, and would also provide immunity for possessing and administering the overdose antidote Narcan, according to this article.

They are also considering a separate bill that would target the abuse of opiate painkillers like Vicodin and OxyContin by allowing more medicine collection sites to accept them for disposal. A third measure would create regional treatment centers, the article says.

Heroin overdose deaths surpassed cocaine deaths in Milwaukee County for the first time in 2012, and heroin was present in 32% of fatal overdoses from mixed drug cocktails, according to this article. Narcan is increasingly being used to address the problem: statewide, emergency medical services have seen an increase in naloxone in the last three years, from 2,915 uses in 2010 to 3,247 in 2011 and 3,730 in 2012, the article says.

What started as an OxyContin and prescription drug addiction problem in Vermont has now grown into a full-blown heroin crisis, with heroin overdose deaths doubling last year from the year before, according to Gov. Peter Shumlin. There has been more than a 250% increase in people receiving heroin treatment in Vermont since 2000, with the greatest percentage increase, nearly 40%, in just the past year, the governor said in his state of the state address. Since 2000, treatment for all opiates increased by more than 770% increase; in 2013, there were twice as many federal indictments against heroin dealers than in the prior two years, and over five times as many as had been obtained in 2010, Shumlin added.

In addition, more than $2 million of heroin and other opiates are being trafficked into Vermont every week, the governor said. Due to the state’s proximity to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and other cities where heroin is cheap, dealers can make a lot of money from addicts in Vermont: a $6 bag of heroin in New York City can go for up to $30, Shumlin said. Read more...

Kentucky currently only has one-tenth of the substance abuse treatment beds it needs, according to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Conway’s suit against Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., which accused the company of failing to disclose to doctors and patients that taking Vioxx significantly raised the risk of heart attack, recently settled for $25 million. His suit against GlaxoSmithKline for failing to disclose that patients taking its diabetes drug, Avandia, were at a higher risk for a cardiovascular event, settled for $15 million.

The illegal use of prescription drugs has dropped among young people in Kentucky over the past four years, according to state officials: in 2008, 15.2% of 12th-graders surveyed said they had used prescription drugs without a doctor’s permission, but that figure dropped to 9% in 2012. Read more...

In New Jersey, where drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death, police officers in several counties will now be allowed to carry the anti-overdose drug Narcan. Police in Ocean, Hunterdon, Camden and Cape May counties are set to begin carrying Narcan, an aerosol form of naloxone that counteracts the effects of heroin and other opioids, after the state passed the Opioid Antidote and Overdose Prevention Act last year. The law enables medical providers to prescribe naloxone and allow people to administer the drug to overdose victims without fear of being prosecuted. It also requires that prescription recipients get information on how to prevent and recognize overdoses, as well as how to administer the medication and care for the overdose victim.

The widespread painkiller addiction epidemic has fueled the rise of heroin use nationwide, particularly among suburban youth. Between 2007 and 2011, the number of users went from 373,000 to 620,000, according to federal data, and heroin-dependent young adults more than doubled to 109,000 between 2009 and 2011.

In Ohio, prescription drug addiction is increasingly putting young, educated suburbanites on the path to heroin addiction. According to this article, these addicts are flooding detox centers, rehab facilities and jails — and are also ending up in the morgue in record numbers. Statewide, nearly 500 people died of heroin overdoses in 2013 alone, and the number of heroin-related deaths has more than doubled in the past three years in a majority of Ohio counties, from 292 in 2010 to 606 in 2012, the article says.